A Los Angeles-based sculptor will create “Ancestor’s Voice” to be placed along the Municipal Walking Trail. It will feature a vessel emerging from the earth in the form of Caddo pottery. Courtesy Yoshikawa Wright

Funded by revenue from city events, a multiyear city project will put approximately 20 public artworks along Wylie’s municipal walking trails over the next decade.

The trails are located in a portion of the Texas Blackland Prairie region, an area visited by hunter-gatherers from dozens of Native American tribes beginning over 15,000 years ago. Running from North Texas to San Antonio, less than one percent of the prairie remains undeveloped. 

Prior to the construction of the Wylie Municipal Building, an archeological dig revealed artifacts from Caddo tribes including arrowheads and pottery, Wylie Public Art Coordinator Carole Ehrlich said.

“We’re trying to honor the Blackland Prairie and what’s left of it,” Ehrlich said. “The Caddo’s are a big part of that, and we wanted to honor them—specifically their ceremonies, the tools they use, hunting and cultivating the land, their huts.”

A Los Angeles-based Japanese American stone sculptor, Yoshikawa Wright, was approved to create two sculptures for the trails at the regular council meeting Tuesday, Nov. 14 after earning the recommendation of the public art selection committee, which received proposals from 37 other artists.  

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By Jeremy Hallock | [email protected]